Lies, Gossip, and Hurt Feelings
by Beanie-Babie17
Summary: Angela Pleasant learns about how gossip can hurt others while her sister deals with budding puberty.
1. Chapter 1:The Scream

**Lies, Gossip and Hurt Feelings**

**Chapter 1: The Scream**

Angela always got to the shower first. It was like her morning solace. She'd rush to get up and rush the bathroom and drown out her sister, Lilith, banging on the door by singing. Every morning since they were ten this was how it went. Until one morning when things went differently. Lilith woke up moaning in pain early one day before school. She rushed to the bathroom a full thirty minutes before Angela usually wakes up. Then everyone in the house was woken up by a high pitched scream coming from the bathroom. Angela jumped out of bed and hit the floor. Before she could even get up, the screaming turned to yelling.

"Mom," shouted Lilith from the bathroom. There was silence until she shouted again. "Mom, I need you." Finally, a half asleep Mary-Sue responded sleepily.

"Alright, I'm up. Hold your horses." she was way too tired to comprehend the emergency.

As soon as Lilith heard her mom outside the door, she flung it open and yanked her mom inside, slamming the door behind her. Angela picked herself up off the floor and shuffled toward the bathroom. She knew that, for some reason, her mom and her sister were inside together. Just as she tried to put her ear to the door, the handle turned so she jerked her face away and stepped back. Mary-Sue opened the door and carefully closed it behind her. She saw Angela standing patiently in the hallway.

"If you need the use the bathroom go downstairs," she said calmly, but weakly, as she slowly went down the stairs herself. Angela sighed and went back to her room, grabbed her towel and clothes and went downstairs to shower. When she was done she went back upstairs and listened at the bathroom door again. Apparently her mom and sister were still in there! She couldn't really hear anything, so she went to go eat breakfast before the school bus came. Her dad was leaving for work around that time, so she figured she would ask her dad if he knew what was up with Lilith and Mary-Sue.

"Your mother made me promise not to tell. It's a very private matter. Give your sister some space today, okay?" he said while putting on his sweater. Angela sighed and nodded since there wasn't much else she could do.

Lilith and Mary-Sue finally did come downstairs in time for the girls to get on the bus. Angela didn't dare breathe a word to Lilith because of what her dad told her, but also because of the frightful look in her eyes that Angela had never seen before.

Angela was distracted from her curiosity of her sister's morning when she sat down on the bus seat beside her best friend, Meadow. Meadow looked positively livid with bloodshot eyes. When Angela inquired about what was wrong, Meadow only needed to utter two words, "Jasmine Davison."


	2. Chapter 2 :The Promise

**Lies, Gossip, and Hurt Feelings**

**Chapter 2: The Promise**

Meadow unveiled her entire previous day to Angela.

"That Jasmine Davison is such a spiteful, jealous, drama queen. Yesterday after school I was at the park with Ivy and then Ricky showed up. And you know I like Ricky. Well, we were talking and then he offered to push me on the swings so I said 'yes,' of course. Then, all of a sudden, Jasmine shows up. She likes Ricky, too. So he stopped pushing me as soon as he saw her. She was flirting with him, too. But he didn't look too comfortable, so I walked over and invited Ricky over to my house for dinner. Jasmine was pretty mad about that. So when Ricky went home with me and my mom, Jasmine wrote horrible things about me on her webpage." she breathed heavily and stopped talking.

"What did she write?" Angela inquired.

"She wrote that I was rude and tactless and that I was…" Meadow trailed off.

"That you were what?" Angela asked.

Meadow bowed her head and then whispered to Angela.

Angela wriggled her nose curiously.

"The neighborhood bicycle? What does that mean?" Angela asked.

"She said that I'm the neighborhood bicycle because…I've been ridden by everyone." she choked on her words.

"Oh my goodness. How could she say that? Well, I think she's just jealous of you. She sees you as her competition." Angela explained.

"What do you mean?" Meadow asked.

"Well, look at you. It's obvious that Ricky likes you instead of her. And both of you are tan skinned blondes with green eyes."

"Well, that is true." Meadow raised her head.

"And just because Jasmine says something on her webpage doesn't make it true. People won't believe it."

"You're right." Meadow said.

The bus finally stopped and everyone got off and went into the building. As Angela and Meadow walked down the hall everyone was crowded by their lockers, whispering. Fear crept into both girls as they went into the bathroom. The girls in the bathroom immediately stopped talking as Meadow and Angela entered. Then they hurriedly left. It was a terrible feeling for the pair. When they went back into the hallway they stood near their lockers looking down at their notebooks waiting for class to start. During lunchtime they were isolated from their peers to a table near the kitchen area. Jasmine walked by their table and smirked at them. Angela couldn't understand why they were being treated that way. Lunchtime was mortifying.

By the end of the school day, Angela had had enough. She walked right up to Jasmine and demanded she stop telling lies on her webpage. Jasmine simply crossed her arms and glared back at her.

"Make me." she said and then walked away as if nothing had happened at all. Angela hurried into the bathroom and hid in the stall to cover up her tears. Then she saw familiar shoes under the door and knew it was Lilith. She wiped her face and came out of the stall.

"Lilith, do you know what people have been saying about Meadow?" she ran up to her sister and asked her.

"Now, you know I don't get caught up in gossip. I have my own life that doesn't involve stooping to that level." Lilith confidently said.

Angela pouted at her sister.

"Oh, alright. You got me. It's kind of hard not to hear gossip about your own sister."

"They're talking about me, too?" Angela blurted out.

"Of course they are. You and Meadow are friends, so they're talking about you. Jasmine put on her webpage yesterday that Meadow's hooked up with every guy in our grade and is trying to steal Ricky from her."

"That's not true!" Angela interrupted.

"Do you want to hear what they're saying about you or not?" Lilith yelled.

"Okay, sorry."

"She says that you and Meadow take turns with guys. Meadow was with Ricky first, and now you're after him."

"How can people believe that just because Jasmine wrote it on the internet?" Angela asked.

"Isn't it obvious? It's the internet. People will believe anything they read online." Lilith explained as she went into a stall.

"Then the only way to get back at Jasmine is to make my own webpage and make up lies about her and see how she likes it." Angela beamed with a new idea. Lilith didn't like it.

"No, no, no. Angela, you never stoop to their level. Things can get out of hand very quickly when you do that."

"But how can I stop her? How can I get people to stop treating me like a leper?"

"Sometimes you just have to wait it out." Lilith said calmly.

"Oh, my dear little sister. If only you knew anything about adolescence. Things don't just blow over. People will remember this and write in our yearbooks and torture us with it forever." Angela lamented while leaning up against the bathroom wall.

"Uh-huh." Lilith mumbled, obviously distracted.

"Oh my goodness. What the heck is keeping you, Lil." Angela was tired from a hard day at school and didn't want to make it worse by missing the bus.

"I'm coming, hold your horses." Lilith said fumbling with something. Angela snorted and laughed out loud.

"You sound like mom," she pointed out. "Speaking of mom, what happened with you and mom this morning?"

"Ugh, Angela…" Lilith said angrily.

"Come on, Lilith. The way you screamed, I thought you were dying." Angela said more seriously.

Lilith blushed and smiled a little.

"I wasn't dying. But, if I tell you what did happen, you cannot repeat it to anyone, okay?"

There was a long silence.

"Earth to Angela. What did I just say?" Lilith said firmly.

"I can't tell anyone." Angela repeated mockingly.

"Do you know who 'anyone' includes?" Lilith tested.

"Meadow." Angela answered.

"That's right. Nobody can know, including Meadow." Lilith repeated.

"Okay, just tell me already."

Lilith exited the bathroom stall, washed her hands, and sat down in front of Angela with legs crossed and explained the morning's events to her wide eyed older sister. Angela cringed slightly but otherwise said nothing.

"And you cannot, I repeat, you cannot tell anybody, okay?" Lilith repeated for the third time.

"I won't tell anybody. I promise." Angela replied.

"Okay, then. Let's go so we won't be late for the bus." The girls got up and went outside to go home.


End file.
